Method for enhancing a user viewing experience when consuming a sequence of media

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are described for a media guidance application that enhances the viewing experiences of users consuming a sequence of media. In particular, the media guidance application may enhance the viewing experiences of users consuming a sequence of media by removing portions of redundant media that were previously consumed by the user.

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, users typically have access to a wide range ofmedia. After consuming first media, a user may consume second media inwhich the second media may contain content overlapping with the firstmedia. As the user has already consumed the overlapping content, theuser may not desire to consume the overlapping content again. Aconventional system will present the second media to the user with theoverlapping content, thus frustrating the user as they need to manuallyfast-forward or skip the overlapping content to avoid consuming itagain.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are described herein for a mediaguidance application that enhances a viewing experience of a user whenviewing multiple media having overlapping content. In particular, themedia guidance application may reduce the amount of time a user wastesconsuming overlapping content by identifying content in previouslyconsumed media that overlaps with content in media requested forconsumption by the user and reducing the amount of overlapping contentin the media requested for consumption by the user. The media guidanceapplication may skip or fast-forward through the overlapping contentduring playback of the media requested for consumption by the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may access a user profile toidentify content (e.g., a title sequence of a previously-viewed episodeof a series) already watched by a user. If the media guidanceapplication detects that a user is about to watch the identified contentagain (e.g., the user is about to watch another episode of the seriesthat includes the title sequence), the media guidance application mayskip or automatically fast-forward through the identified content duringplayback of the other episode.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may retrieve a userprofile indicating a user previously consumed a first media asset. Forexample, upon playback of a media asset, the media guidance applicationmay write data indicating that the user has consumed the media asset toa remote or local data storage location corresponding to a user. Themedia guidance application may access the local or remote data storagelocation to retrieve data corresponding to previously consumed mediaassets and may identify a first media asset previously consumed by theuser from a plurality of media assets.

The media guidance application may detect that the user is about toconsume a second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may be configured to receive and process user inputs. Uponreceiving a user input, the media guidance application may determinethat the user input corresponds to a request to consume a second mediaasset. As an example, the media guidance application may be configuredto interpret a user input from a remote control, a touch screen device,a network data packet, etc.

The media guidance application may compare the second media asset to thefirst media asset to determine whether a portion of the second mediaasset matches content from the first media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may identify a portion of the second media assetfor a comparison to the first media asset. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may monitor user behavior of a population ofusers who consume the second media asset after consuming the first mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may log, in adatabase, actions performed by users who consume the second media assetafter consuming the first media asset. In response to the monitoring,the media guidance application may analyze the log to identify a portionof the second media asset corresponding to fast-forward behavior by athreshold number of users in the population. The media guidanceapplication may select the identified portion of the second media assetas the portion. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayidentify a frame of the second media asset as the portion. For example,the media guidance application may select an image corresponding to themedia asset as the portion. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may select a plurality of frames from the second media assetas the portion. For example, the media guidance application may selectthe first N frames of the second media asset, wherein N is a numbergreater than 1. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayselect a portion wherein the portion is preceded by a second portion ofthe second media asset during playback of the second media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may select a frame of the secondmedia asset wherein the selected frame is rendered after at least oneother frame during playback of the second media asset.

In response to determining that the portion of the second media assetmatches the content from the first media asset (e.g., determining that auser has already consumed a portion of the second media asset), themedia guidance application may edit the second media asset to remove theportion (e.g., in order to prevent the user from having to manually skipor fast-forward the portion) and generate for display the edited secondmedia asset (e.g., a version of the second media asset without thecontent previously viewed by the user).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine aframe of the second media asset that corresponds to the portion forcomparing the second media asset to the first media asset. For example,the media guidance application may select an image associated with theportion of the second media asset. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may cross-reference the frame with a databaselisting a plurality of frames of the first media asset to determinewhether the frame matches one of the plurality of frames. For example,the media guidance application may access a database containing imagesassociated with the first media asset. The media guidance applicationmay compare the images associated with the first media asset to theimage associated with the portion to determine if an image associatedwith the first media asset matches the image associated with theportion. In some embodiments, frames may be associated with audiosignals. For example, a frame of multimedia may be associated with bothan image and an associated sound. The media guidance application maycompare the frame of the portion and a frame of the first media asset byaccessing a database of frame audio and video data and cross-referenceimage and audio data associated with the frame of the portion with imageand audio data associated with a frame of the first media asset. In someembodiments, the frame may contain only audio data. The media guidanceapplication may compare the frame of the portion and a frame of thefirst media asset by accessing a database of frame audio data andcross-reference audio data associated with the frame of the portion withaudio data associated with a frame of the first media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrievemetadata corresponding to the portion of the second media asset forcomparing the portion to the first media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve data associated with the portion byidentifying characteristics of the portion, such as actors, scenes,genres, etc. associated with the portion. The media guidance applicationmay cross-reference the metadata of the portion with a database listingmetadata of the first media asset to determine whether the portionmatches the content from the first media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may access a database of actors, scenes, genres,etc. associated with the first media asset. The media guidanceapplication may cross reference metadata in the database with themetadata corresponding to the portion to identify matching metadata.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve anevent corresponding to the portion for comparing the portion to thefirst media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve a data tag associated with the portion containing informationabout an event that occurs within the portion (e.g., a tag for anepisode of a talent show may identify a performer and a talent actcorresponding to the portion). The media guidance application maycross-reference the event of the portion with a database listing aplurality of events corresponding to the first media asset to determinewhether the portion matches content from the first media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may access a database containingdata identifying a plurality of tags associated with the first mediaasset. The media guidance application may compare the tag (e.g., dataidentifying a performer and a talent act) associated with the portionwith the tags in the database to determine if the tag (e.g., dataidentifying a performer and a talent act) of the portion matches a tagassociated with the first media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify anepisode of a series associated with the portion and an episode of aseries associated with the first media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may access a database to identify an episode of aseries associated with a portion of the second media asset that recapsevents from a previous episode. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may compare the episode of the series associated with theportion to the episode of the series associated with the first mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may access a databasecontaining episode and series information for media assets to determinean episode of a series associated with the first media asset. The mediaguidance application may compare the portion and the first media assetby determining whether the respective episodes of the series are equal.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may edit the secondmedia asset to remove the portion in response to determining that theportion of the second media asset matches the content from the firstmedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may removeframes corresponding to the portion from the second media asset, suchthat the frames corresponding to the portion will not be generated fordisplay by the media guidance application during playback of the editedsecond media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay the edited second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate image data (e.g., for display on a displayscreen associated with the media guidance application) and/or sound data(e.g., for a speaker associated with the media guidance application)corresponding to the edited second media asset, such that less than allof the portion is generated for display during playback of the secondmedia asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate anedited portion by increasing a perceived playback speed of the portion.For example, the media guidance application may generate an editedportion containing a fraction of an original number of frames of theportion (e.g., every fourth frame of the portion). The media guidanceapplication may playback the edited portion at an equivalent frame rateas the portion such that the edited portion is perceived, by the user,as a sped up version of the portion. The media guidance application mayedit the second media asset to replace the portion with the editedportion. For example, the media guidance application may play back theedited portion instead of playing back the portion during playback ofthe second media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may present the userwith an option to view the portion removed from the second media asset.For example, the media guidance application may prompt the user as towhether the portion should be skipped, played at a faster rate or if theportion should be rendered during playback of the second media asset.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods,and/or apparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a media guidance display thatmay be presented in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a media guidance displaythat may be presented in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of an original and edited mediaasset having overlapping content with another media asset in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of illustrative steps for editing a media assethaving overlapping content with another media asset in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of illustrative steps for editing frames of amedia asset having overlapping content with another media asset inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Methods and systems are described herein for a media guidanceapplication that enhances a viewing experience of a user when viewingmultiple media assets having overlapping content. In particular, themedia guidance application may reduce the amount of time a user wastesconsuming overlapping content by identifying content in previouslyconsumed media overlapping with content in media requested forconsumption by the user and reducing the amount of overlapping contentin the media requested for consumption by the user.

As referred to herein, “overlapping content” refers to data in firstmedia that is similar to, or equal to, data in second media. Forexample, a first and a second media are said to have overlapping contentif images, sounds, metadata, etc. match or are similar by at least athreshold value. For example, a first media having a frame that matchesa frame of a second media by 95% (e.g., 95% of the pixels in the framematch) may be determined by the media guidance application to beoverlapping. Overlapping content may correspond to distinct portions ofmedia assets. For example, overlapping content may correspond to atitle, intro, or credits sequence, may correspond to a video/clip recap,may correspond to a commercial or advertisement, and/or may correspondto another frame or scene in a media asset.

As referred to herein, a “frame” may be any image and/or soundassociated with media. For example, a frame of a movie may be an imageand a sound captured at a specific point in the movie. In anotherexample, a frame of a song may be audio data associated with a specificsample of the song. The media guidance application may skip orfast-forward through the overlapping content during playback of themedia requested for consumption by the user. For example, the mediaguidance application may access a user profile to identify a first mediaasset previously consumed by the user. The media guidance applicationmay detect a user request to consume a second media asset. In responseto the detection, the media guidance application may compare a portionof the second media asset to the first media asset to determine if theportion overlaps with content in the first media asset. The mediaguidance application may edit the second media asset such that theportion is skipped or fast-forwarded through during playback of thesecond media asset.

As referred to herein, a “media guidance application” is an applicationthat enables users to access media content through an interface. Mediaguidance applications may take various forms depending on the contentfor which they provide guidance. One typical type of media guidanceapplication is an interactive television program guide. Interactivetelevision program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic programguides) are well-known guidance applications that, among other things,allow users to navigate among and locate many types of content or mediaassets. Media guidance applications may generate graphical userinterface screens that enable a user to navigate among, locate andselect content.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded oncomputer-readable media. Computer-readable media includes any mediacapable of storing data. The computer-readable media may be transitory,including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagneticsignals, or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to,volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as ahard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, registermemory, processor caches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should beunderstood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such astelevision programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demandprograms (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g.,streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips,audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents,playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs,advertisements, chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and/orany other media or multimedia and/or combination of the same. Mediaguidance applications also allow users to navigate among and locatecontent. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should beunderstood to mean content that utilizes at least two different contentforms described above, for example, text, audio, images, video, orinteractivity content forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayedor accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a liveperformance.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a userprofile indicating a user previously consumed a first media asset. Themedia guidance application may determine whether a user profile existsby first identifying the user (e.g., login information, a picture of theuser (e.g., gained through a webcam), a hash value uniquely identifyingthe user or any other known identifying information of the user), andthen by cross referencing the user's identity against entries of a userprofile database. As a result of the cross referencing, the mediaguidance application may receive a pointer to a profile if one islocated or may receive a NULL value if the profile does not exist. Theuser profile database may be located remotely or locally with respect tothe media guidance application and may be accessible to the mediaguidance application over a network connection. If a user profile islocated, the media guidance application may access database entriescorresponding to previously viewed media by the user. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may store, in the userprofile, data indicating all media assets previously viewed by the user.For example, the media guidance application may store a value uniquelyidentifying a media asset consumed by a user in the profile of the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may update the userprofile to include a list of recently viewed media assets. The mediaguidance application may update the list of recently viewed media assetsto comprise only media assets that were consumed by a user more recentlythan a threshold number of days, minutes, hours, etc. The media guidanceapplication may compare a value storing a time the media asset was lastconsumed with a value indicating a current date and time to determine ifthe media asset should be included on the list of recently viewed mediaassets. In some embodiments, the list of recently viewed media assetsmay include all media assets consumed by a user. For example, the listmay include every media asset viewed by the user since the profile wascreated by the media guidance application.

In some embodiments, the user can select the threshold value associatedwith the list of recently viewed media assets. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the threshold value from the userprofile. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayidentify a first media asset from the media assets corresponding to theuser profile. For example, the media guidance application may identify amost recently consumed media asset in the user profile by comparing thecurrent date and time to a date and time associated with a media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may iterate throughall the previously viewed media assets in the profile. For example, themedia guidance application may iteratively select each media assetpreviously consumed by the user as the first media asset such that eachmedia asset is selected at least once as the first media asset uponcompletion of the iteration.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may access adatabase of metadata associated with a consumed media asset to retrievemetadata associated with the first media asset to make a determinationif the media asset should be selected as the first media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may access a remote or localdatabase containing information, such as a title, an episode, a series,a listing of actors/actresses, etc. associated with a media assetrequested for consumption by the user. The media guidance applicationmay compare metadata of the media asset requested for consumption by theuser with metadata of a media asset in the profile of the user toidentify a matching media asset comprising metadata matching at least aportion of the metadata of the media asset requested for consumption bythe user. The media guidance application may select the matching mediaasset as the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect a user request to consume media corresponding tothe television series “Game of Thrones.” The media guidance applicationmay search the user profile for media assets corresponding to the series“Game of Thrones” to select the first media asset.

In some embodiments, the first media asset is selected by the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may detect user input (e.g., avoice command, an infra red pulse from a remote control, a change involtage at the surface of a touchscreen, etc.) at an input deviceassociated with the media guidance application. The media guidanceapplication may associate the user input with a media asset associatedwith the media guidance application. The media guidance application mayselect the media asset as the first media asset. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may select the first media asset from alist, defined by a user, of media assets. In an example, the mediaguidance application may generate for display an option for the user toselect a list of media assets that the user wants to consume. As theuser consumes the media assets from the list, the media guidanceapplication may populate a log of recently viewed media assets from thelist. The media guidance application may select a first media asset fromthe log of recently viewed media assets from the list. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may process the log toiteratively identify a first media asset. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may select a first media asset that has not yetbeen consumed by the user. For example, the media guidance applicationmay iteratively select a media asset from a list of recorded mediaassets. In another example, media guidance application may automaticallyprocess the list of recorded media assets to identify media assetscorresponding to a series matching a series associated with a mediaasset requested for consumption by the user. The media guidanceapplication may select a first media asset from the identified mediaassets.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect that theuser is about to consume a second media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may monitor an input associated with the mediaguidance application. In an example, the media guidance application mayconfigure the input to interpret signals from input devices such as amicrophone, a touchscreen, a mouse, a keyboard, a remote control, anetwork interface, etc. The media guidance application may interpret theinput to correlate the input with a media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect user input at a touch screen connectedto an input associated with the media guidance application. The mediaguidance application may interpret the touch screen input to identifycoordinates of the touch screen corresponding to the user input. Themedia guidance application may cross-reference coordinates of the touchscreen with pixels of a display screen associated with the touch screento identify a pixel associated with the touch screen input. The mediaguidance application may cross-reference a location of the pixel withlocations of items generated for display by the media guidanceapplication on the display screen to identify a media asset associatedwith the user input. The media guidance application may identify theuser input associated with the media asset as a request to consume themedia asset. In another example, the media guidance application maydetect user input (e.g., via a remote control) at an infrared inputassociated with the media guidance application. The media guidanceapplication may identify a “select” command or equivalent associatedwith the user input. The media guidance application may correlate the“select” command with an item displayed on a display screen associatedwith the media guidance application to identify a media assetcorresponding to the user input. The media guidance application mayidentify the user input as a request to consume the media assetassociated with the user input. In another example, the media guidanceapplication may detect a packet at a network input associated with themedia guidance application containing data identifying a request by auser to consume a second media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may present the userwith an option to select a list of media assets requested forconsumption. For example, the media guidance application may present theuser with an option to generate a playlist of media assets. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may track user consumptionof the media assets in the list. For example, the media guidanceapplication may track user consumption of the media assets by removing amedia asset from the list after it is consumed by a user. The mediaguidance application may detect that the second user is about to consumea second media asset by checking whether there are still items on theplaylist. One of ordinary skill in the art will realize that these arejust exemplary methods for detecting that the user is about to consume asecond media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare thesecond media asset to the first media asset to determine whether aportion of the second media asset matches content from the first mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may compare a frameof the second media asset with frames of the first media asset todetermine whether the frame of the second media asset matches a frame ofthe first media asset.

As referred to herein, a “portion” of a media asset may refer to anypart of a media asset that is distinguishable from another part of themedia asset. For example, a portion may correspond to a frame, set offrames, scene, chapter, etc. The media guidance application may identifydistinct portions based on time-marks (e.g., a portion begins at a firsttime mark and ends at a second time mark) in the play length of a mediaasset. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application mayidentify portions based on a range of frames (a portion begins at afirst frame and ends at a second frame). Alternatively or additionally,the media guidance application may identify portions based on content inthe media asset (a portion may begin at the appearance of particularcontent and end at the appearance of the same or different content).Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application mayidentify portions based on metadata associated with the media asset (aportion may begin at a first metadata tag and end at a second metadatatag.

For example, a portion of the second media asset may be a frame or videoimage associated with the second media asset. In another example, aportion of the second media asset may be metadata, such as dataidentifying an actor or actress associated with a scene of the secondmedia asset. In another example, a portion of the second media asset maybe identified by a time range associated with the second media asset. Inanother example, the portion of the second media asset may comprise theentire second media asset. In some embodiments, the portion may bepreceded by a second portion of the media asset during playback of thesecond media asset. For example, the second media asset may comprise asecond portion such that the second portion precedes the portion duringplayback of the second media asset. In another example, the second mediaasset may comprise a third portion wherein the third portion follows theportion during playback of the second media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may iterate thoughthe second media asset to identify portions of the second media asset.For example, the media guidance application may select a first frame ofthe second media asset as the portion. The media guidance applicationmay compare the first frame to frames corresponding to the first mediaasset to identify a matching frame. For example, the media guidanceapplication may employ an image processing algorithm to derive asimilarity value between the two frames. If the frames are similar by atleast a threshold value, the media guidance application may determinethat the frames are a match. The media guidance application maydetermine the threshold value by querying the user for a threshold or byaccessing a variable stored locally or remotely from media guidanceapplication. After the comparison, the media guidance application mayselect a second frame of the second media asset as the portion and mayperform a second comparison.

In some embodiments the media guidance application may determine a frameof the second media asset that corresponds to the portion. For example,the media guidance application may identify a frame of a plurality offrames corresponding to the portion of the second media asset. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may cross-reference theframe with a database listing a plurality of frames in the first mediaasset to determine whether the frame matches one of the plurality offrames of the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may select a frame of the first media asset by iteratingthrough the frames in the database. The media guidance application maycompare image data of the frame by applying an image processingalgorithm to the frames of the first media asset to derive a similarityvalue. For example, the image processing algorithm may compare pixeldata for each pixel in each of the frames. To derive a similarity value,the media guidance application may compute the percentage of pixels thatmatch both frames. If the similarity value is above a similaritythreshold, the media guidance application may determine that the framesmatch. For example, the media guidance application may compare thesimilarity value to a similarity threshold stored locally to the mediaguidance application. If the media guidance application determines thatthe similarity value is above the similarity threshold, the mediaguidance application equates the frames to a match. Otherwise, the mediaguidance application determines that the frames do not match.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrievemetadata corresponding to the portion. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve, from a database, data indicating an initialair date of the content in the portion. The content in the portion maycorrespond to content from another media asset having an initial airdate distinct from the second media asset. For example, the portion maycorrespond to a recap of a previously aired episode of a show. The mediaguidance application may cross-reference the metadata of the portionwith a database listing metadata of the first media asset to determinewhether the portion matches content from the first media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may cross reference the dataindicating an initial air date of the content in the portion with adatabase listing initial air dates for a plurality of media assets todetermine whether the portion matches content from the first mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve anevent corresponding to the portion. As referred to herein, an “event”may be any data (e.g., a metadata tag, an object appearing in a frame,etc.) associated with a portion of a media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve data indicating a scene or an actorassociated with content in the portion. The second media asset may beassociated with tags indicating events associated with the second mediaasset, wherein each of the tags are associated with a time position inthe second media asset. The media guidance application may automaticallygenerate tags by applying an image and/or sound processing algorithm onframes of the media asset. For example the media guidance applicationmay identify faces of an actor/actress and an action associated with theactor/actress in the portion. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication retrieves tags generated by users of a population of userswho watch the second media asset. The media guidance application mayaccess a database listing the tags generated by the users. In anotherexample, a content provider of the second media asset may update andmaintain a database of tags associated with the media asset. The mediaguidance application may access the database associated with the contentprovider to retrieve a tag. The media guidance application may correlatea time of the portion (e.g., a start time of the portion relative to atime within the second media asset) with a database listing time-tagpairs of the second media asset. The media guidance application mayretrieve a tag from the database corresponding to the portion.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may cross-referencethe event of the portion with a database listing events of the firstmedia asset to determine whether the portion matches the content fromthe first media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve a data tag corresponding to the portion identifying a characterand a storyline associated with the character. As an example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve data indicating that a character getsmarried in the portion. The media guidance application maycross-reference the tag of the portion with the database listing tags ofthe first media asset to determine whether the database comprises dataindicating that the character got married in the first media asset. Ifthe database comprises data indicating that the character got married inthe first media asset then the portion is determined by the mediaguidance application to match content from the first media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify anepisode of a series associated with the portion and an episode of aseries associated with the first media asset. For example, a portion maycomprise content from an episode of a series distinct from a episode ofa series of the second media asset (e.g., a show recap or content from acrossover episode). The media guidance application may access a databaselisting episodes of a series of associated content in the second mediaasset. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may capture aframe from the portion, the media guidance application maycross-reference the frame with database of frames of a plurality ofepisodes of series. For example, the media guidance application may usean image processing algorithm to identify a frame in the databasematching the frame of the portion. When the media guidance applicationidentifies a matching frame, the media guidance application willretrieve the episode and series of the matching frame as the episode andseries corresponding to the portion. In an example, the media guidancemay identify an episode of a series associated with the first mediaasset by querying a database of media guidance information for anepisode of a series associated with the first media asset. For example,the media guidance application may generate a unique identifier for themedia asset (e.g., by hashing data corresponding to the first mediaasset) and may transmit the unique identifier in a query to the databaseof media guidance information. The media guidance application mayreceive a response from the database of media guidance informationcontaining an episode of a series associated with the first media asset.The media guidance application may compare the episode of the seriesassociated with the portion to the episode of the series associated withthe first media asset to determine whether the portion of the secondmedia asset matches content from the first media asset.

In some embodiments the media guidance application may edit the secondmedia asset to remove the portion in response to determining that theportion of the second media asset matches the content from the firstmedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may remove allframes from the second media asset corresponding to the portion.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate anedited portion by increasing a perceived playback speed of the portion.For example, the media guidance application may generate an editedportion such that the edited portion comprises a fractional portion ofthe frames of the portion. The media guidance application may playbackthe edited portion such that the user may perceive the edited portion asa sped-up version of the portion.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may edit the secondmedia asset to replace the portion with the edited portion. For example,the media guidance application may remove all frames corresponding tothe portion from the second media asset and may instead insert framescorresponding to the edited portion in the second media asset. In anexample, the media guidance application may replace the portion with theedited portion such that a user perceives that the portion is beingfast-forwarded during playback of the second media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may vary theperceived playback speed of the portion depending on a length of timesince the user has last viewed the first media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may retrieve, from a profile corresponding tothe user, a time corresponding to the last time that a user viewed thefirst media asset. If the time is below a threshold time value, themedia guidance application may increase the perceived playback speed toa fast rate. If the time is below the threshold time value, the mediaguidance application may decrease the perceived playback speed to a slowrate. The fast rate may be selected by the media guidance application asa rate that is greater than the slow rate. The slow rate may be selectedby the media guidance application such that the slow rate is greaterthan the normal playback speed of the second media asset but slower thanthe fast rate.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay the edited second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display on a display device associated withthe media guidance application the edited second media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may present the userwith an option to view the portion removed from the second media asset.For example, the media guidance application may generate for display amessage informing the user that the portion contains content from apreviously viewed media asset. The media guidance application maygenerate for display a prompt, prompting the user to decide if he or shewants to view the portion. The media guidance application may generatefor display a variety of options such as an option to skip the portion,play the portion at a faster speed, play the portion at a normal speed,etc.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may monitor userbehavior of a population of users who consume the second media assetafter consuming the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may track user behavior, such as user interactions with asecond media asset, for users who consume the second media asset afterconsuming the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may record, in a database of user interactions, dataevidencing how a user interacts with the second media asset (e.g., dataevidencing whether a user fast-forwarded a portion of the second mediaasset, a location in the second media asset corresponding to thefast-forward command, etc.).

In some embodiments the media guidance application may detectfast-forward behavior corresponding to the portion by a threshold numberof users of the population in response to the monitoring. For example,the media guidance application may store a variable which is incrementedby the media guidance application each time a user of the populationfast-forwards a portion of the media asset after viewing the first mediaasset. As an example, the media guidance application may detectbehavior, from multiple users, fast-forwarding through a portion of thesecond media asset (e.g., a portion corresponding to an episode recap)after said users view a first media asset (e.g., an episode which mayprecede an episode of the second media asset). In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may identify the portion and use the portionto compare the second media asset to the first media asset as describedabove.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect that auser is about to consume a second media asset through user interactionwith an element of the illustrative display screens depicted in FIGS.1-2. FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used toprovide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 maybe implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. Whilethe displays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screen displays, theymay also be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. Auser may indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided inprogram information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 310may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a media guidance application generatingfor display (e.g., via control circuitry 304) edited versions of a mediaasset with varying degrees of removed content. Display 500 illustrates adisplay screen (e.g., display 312) in which an original version of themedia asset is rendered. The media guidance application may generate fordisplay media asset 502. Media asset 502 may comprise the second mediaasset as described above. The media guidance application may generatefor display progress bar 504 for display on display 312. The mediaguidance application may generate for display, using control circuitry304, progress bar 504 to serve as an indicator of the playback positionin media asset 502. The media guidance application may vary the lengthof progress bar 504 based on the total play length of media asset 502.For example, the media guidance application may generate for display,using control circuitry 304, progress bar 504 for media asset 502 havinga total playback time of 70 min. The media guidance application maygenerate for display, using control circuitry 304, total time indicator508 at the end of progress bar 504 to indicate a total play timeassociated with media asset 502 and start time indicator 506 to indicatea start time associated with media asset 502. The media guidanceapplication may generate for display, using control circuitry 304,current playback position and time 510 in progress bar 504. The mediaguidance application may compare, using control circuitry 304, mediaasset 502 to a previously consumed media asset indicated by a userprofile associated with the user. The media guidance application mayaccess, using control circuitry 304, a user profile stored on a localstorage, such as storage 308, or a remote storage, such as mediaguidance data source 418 via communications network 414. The mediaguidance application may identify, using control circuitry 304, aportion of media asset 502 overlapping with the previously consumedmedia asset using the methods described above. The media guidanceapplication may generate for display, using control circuitry 304,overlap indicator 512 in progress bar 504 to indicate to a user theportion of the content in media asset 502 overlapping with thepreviously consumed media asset.

Display 520 illustrates a display screen (e.g., display 312) in whichmedia asset 502 is modified to remove a fraction of the portion. Themedia guidance application may edit media asset 502, using controlcircuitry 304, to remove a series of frames from the portion to reducethe size of the portion. For example, media guidance application mayremove every other frame from the portion to generate an edited portionwhich comprises half of the number of frames in the portion. The mediaguidance application may replace the portion in media asset 502 togenerate a first edited media asset 522. The media guidance applicationmay generate for display using control circuitry 304 first editedprogress bar 530 corresponding to first edited media asset 522. Themedia guidance application may update first edited progress indicator526, first edited total time indicator 528 and first edited overlapindicator 524 to correspond to first edited media asset 522.

Display 540 illustrates a display screen (e.g., display 312) in whichmedia asset 502 is modified to remove the portion. The media guidanceapplication may edit media asset 502 using control circuitry 304 toremove the frames corresponding to the portion to create second editedmedia asset 542. The media guidance application may generate for displayusing control circuitry 304 second updated edited progress bar 550corresponding to second edited media asset 542. The media guidanceapplication may generate for display updated second edited progressindicator 546, second edited total time indicator 548 and second editedoverlap indicator 544 corresponding to second edited media asset 542.

FIG. 6 depicts a flow chart of illustrative steps for generating fordisplay an edited media asset such as first edited media asset 522 orsecond edited media asset 542. It should be noted that process 600, orany step thereof, could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 3-5. For example, process 600 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 304 as instructed by a media guidance applicationimplemented on user equipment 402, 404, 406 in order to generate fordisplay an edited media asset. In addition, one or more steps of process600 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of anyother process or embodiment (e.g., process 700).

At step 602, the media guidance application retrieves a user profileindicating a user previously consumed a first media asset. For example,the media guidance application may access, using control circuitry 304,a remote or local data storage location (e.g., media guidance datasource via communications network 414 or storage 308) to retrieve a userprofile associated with the user. The media guidance application mayselect, using the methods described above, a first media assetpreviously consumed by the user in the profile.

At step 604, the media guidance application may detect that the user isabout to consume a second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect, using control circuitry 304, at user inputinterface 310, a request from a user to consume a second media asset. Inanother example, the media guidance application may detect a networkpacket containing a request from a user to consume a second media asset.In another example, the media guidance application may detect voiceinput at user input interface 310 and may process, using processingcircuitry 306, the voice input to determine a second media assetrequested by a user. As an example, the media guidance application maydetect that the user is about to consume media asset 502.

At step 606, the media guidance application may compare the second mediaasset to the first media asset to determine whether a portion of thesecond media asset matches content from the first media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may use control circuitry 304 toidentify a portion of the second media asset for the comparison. Themedia guidance application may choose a portion of the second mediaasset by identifying a portion of the second media asset that isfrequently fast-forwarded by a threshold number of users of a populationof users as described above. The media guidance application may comparea frame of the first media asset to a frame of the portion. The mediaguidance application my access a database, remote or local to the mediaguidance application, (e.g., media guidance data source 418 or storage308) to retrieve a plurality of frames associated with the first mediaasset for the comparison. This is just an exemplary method for comparingthe first and second media asset to determine whether a portion of thesecond media asset matches content from the first media asset. The mediaguidance application may use control circuitry 304 for performing any ofthe methods described above for the comparison. As a result of thecomparison, the media guidance application may generate for display aoverlap indicator 512 corresponding to a portion of the media asset thatoverlaps with the first media asset.

At step 608, the media guidance application may edit the second mediaasset to remove the portion in response to determining that the portionof the second media asset matches the content from the first mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may use controlcircuitry 304 to automatically remove all frames corresponding to theportion from the second media asset to create an edited second mediaasset. As an example, the media guidance application may generate secondedited media asset 542 as a result of removing the portion. The mediaguidance application may generate for display second overlap indicator544 with negligible width since the portion is removed. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may receive user input at userinput interface 310 indicating that a user wants to fast-forward throughthe portion. The media guidance application may generate, using controlcircuitry 304, an edited second media asset wherein a proportion of theframes of the portion are removed from the second media asset to createthe edited second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may edit media asset 502 to create first edited media asset522. The media guidance application may generate for display firstedited overlap indicator 524 shorter than overlap indicator 512 toindicate the first edited media asset contains less overlap than mediaasset 502.

At step 610, the media guidance application may generate for display theedited second media asset. For example, the media guidance applicationmay generate for display on display 312, using control circuitry 304,first edited media asset 522 or second edited media asset 542.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 6 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 6 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-5 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 6.

FIG. 7 depicts a flow chart of illustrative steps for editing mediaasset 502. It should be noted that process 700, or any step thereof,could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS.3-5. For example, process 700 may be executed by control circuitry 304as instructed by a media guidance application implemented on userequipment 402, 404, 406 in order to edit media asset 502. In addition,one or more steps of process 700 may be incorporated into or combinedwith one or more steps of any other process or embodiment (e.g., process600).

At step 702, the media guidance application may retrieve a user profileindicating a user previously consumed a first media asset. For example,the media guidance application may use control circuitry 304 to access adatabase containing a profile associated with a user. The media guidanceapplication may access a listing of previously consumed media assets andmay select a first media asset from the listing of media assets.

At step 704, the media guidance application may detect that the user isabout to consume a second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may monitor network data packets transmitted overcommunications network 414. As a result of the monitoring, the mediaguidance application may detect, using control circuitry 304, a packetcontaining data indicating the user is about to consume the second mediaasset (e.g., media asset 502). For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect frame data in a packet corresponding to a mediaasset streamed from media content source 416.

At step 706, the media guidance application may select a portioncorresponding to the second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may select, using control circuitry 304, a framecorresponding to the second media asset as the portion. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may select, using controlcircuitry 304, a plurality of frames within the second media asset(e.g., media asset 502).

At step 708, the media guidance application may retrieve a framecorresponding to the portion. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve, using control circuitry 304, a framecorresponding to the second media asset (e.g., media asset 502) byrequesting a frame from media content source 416 via communicationsnetwork 414.

At step 710, the media guidance application may retrieve a framecorresponding to the first media asset from a database listing aplurality of frames in the first media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve, using control circuitry 304, a framecorresponding to the first media asset by accessing a database havingthe plurality of frames associated with the first media asset (e.g., byaccessing media content source 416 via communications network 414).

At step 712, the media guidance application may compare the framecorresponding to the portion to the frame corresponding to the firstmedia asset to determine whether the portion matches content from thefirst media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayemploy, using control circuitry 304, an image processing algorithm tocompare the frame corresponding to the portion with the framecorresponding to the first media asset. The media guidance applicationmay determine that the frames match if the comparison using the imageprocessing algorithm determines that the frames are similar by at leasta threshold percentage.

At step 714, the media guidance application determines whether the framecorresponding to the portion matches the frame corresponding to thefirst media asset. As in an example described above, the media guidanceapplication may determine, using an image processing algorithm runningon control circuitry 304, whether the frames match by at least athreshold percentage. If the media guidance application determines,using control circuitry 304, that the frames match by at least athreshold percentage, the media guidance application proceeds to step716. Otherwise, the media guidance application proceeds to step 718.

At step 716, the media guidance application edits the second media assetto remove the frame corresponding to the portion. For example, the mediaguidance application temporarily stores an edited second media asset(e.g., first edited media asset 522 or second edited media asset 542)locally in storage 308 or remotely in media content source 416 or mediaguidance data source 418 via communications network 414. The mediaguidance data source may update, using control circuitry 304, the editedsecond media asset (e.g., first edited media asset 522 or second editedmedia asset 542) by removing the frame corresponding to the portion,such that the frame is no longer included during playback of the editedsecond media asset.

At step 718, the media guidance application may select a next portioncorresponding to the second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may select, using control circuitry 304, a next portion fromthe second media asset such that the next portion is preceded by theportion during playback. As an example, the media guidance applicationmay select, using control circuitry 304, a plurality of framescorresponding to the second media asset as the portion. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may select a single frame as theportion.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-5 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 7.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiments in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for enhancing a user viewing experience,the method comprising: retrieving a user profile indicating a userpreviously consumed a first episode of a series; detecting at a currenttime that the user is about to consume a second episode of the series,wherein the second episode of the series is different than the firstepisode of the series; comparing the second episode of the series to thefirst episode of the series to determine whether a portion of the secondepisode of the series matches a portion of the first episode of theseries, wherein the portion of the second episode of the series is apart of the second episode of the series that is distinguishable fromanother part of the second episode of the series, and wherein theportion of the first episode of the series is a part of the firstepisode of the series that is distinguishable from another part of thefirst episode of the series; in response to determining that the portionof the second episode of the series matches the portion of the firstepisode of the series: retrieving from the user profile a last time theuser has accessed the first episode of the series; computing a length oftime since the last time based on a difference between the last time andthe current time; comparing the length of time to a threshold; selectingone of a first playback rate or a second playback rate based on whetherthe length of time is less than the threshold, wherein the firstplayback rate is faster than the normal playback rate and wherein thesecond playback rate is faster than the first playback rate, editing thesecond episode of the series such that the portion of the second episodeof the series is played back at the selected playback rate; andgenerating for display the edited second episode of the series.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the portion of the second episode of theseries is a subset of the frames of the second episode of the series. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the second episode of theseries to the first episode of the series to determine whether theportion of the second episode of the series matches the portion of thefirst episode of the series comprises: determining a frame of the secondepisode of the series that corresponds to the portion of the secondepisode of the series; and cross-referencing the frame with a databaselisting a plurality of frames in the first episode of the series todetermine whether the frame matches one of the plurality of frames. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the second episode of theseries is preceded by a second portion of the second episode of theseries during playback of the second episode of the series.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein comparing the second episode of the series tothe first episode of the series to determine whether the portion of thesecond episode of the series matches the portion of the first episode ofthe series comprises: retrieving metadata corresponding to the portionof the second episode of the series; and cross-referencing the metadataof the portion of the second episode of the series with a databaselisting metadata of the first episode of the series to determine whetherthe portion of the second episode of the series matches the portion ofthe first episode of the series.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereincomparing the second episode of the series to the first episode of theseries to determine whether the portion of the second episode of theseries matches the portion of the first episode of the series comprises:retrieving an event corresponding to the portion of the second episodeof the series; and cross-referencing the event of the portion of thesecond episode of the series with a database listing a plurality ofevents corresponding to the first episode of the series to determinewhether the portion of the second episode of the series matches theportion of the first episode of the series.
 7. The method of claim 1,further comprising: monitoring user behavior of a population of userswho consume the second episode of the series after consuming the firstepisode of the series; in response to the monitoring, detectingfast-forward behavior corresponding to the portion of the second episodeof the series by a threshold number of users of the population; and inresponse to detecting the fast-forward behavior, identifying the portionof the second episode of the series for the comparing.
 8. A system forenhancing a user viewing experience, the system comprising: storagecircuitry configured to store a user profile; and control circuitryconfigured to: retrieve the user profile indicating a user previouslyconsumed a first episode of a series; detect at a current time that theuser is about to consume a second episode of the series, wherein thesecond episode of the series is different than the first episode of theseries; compare the second episode of the series to the first episode ofthe series to determine whether a portion of the second episode of theseries matches a portion of the first episode of the series, wherein theportion of the second episode of the series is a part of the secondepisode of the series that is distinguishable from another part of thesecond episode of the series, and wherein the portion of the firstepisode of the series is a part of the first episode of the series thatis distinguishable from another part of the first episode of the series;in response to determining that the portion of the second episode of theseries matches the portion of the first episode of the series: retrievefrom the user profile a last time the user has accessed the firstepisode of the series; compute a length of time since the last timebased on a difference between the last time and the current time;compare the length of time to a threshold; select one of a firstplayback rate or a second playback rate based on whether the length oftime is less than the threshold, wherein the first playback rate isfaster than the normal playback rate and wherein the second playbackrate is faster than the first playback rate, edit the second episode ofthe series such that the portion of the second episode of the series isplayed back at the selected playback rate; and generate for display theedited second episode of the series.
 9. The system of claim 8, whereinthe portion of the second episode of the series is a subset of theframes of the second episode of the series.
 10. The system of claim 8,wherein the control circuitry configured to compare the second episodeof the series to the first episode of the series to determine whetherthe portion of the second episode of the series matches the portion ofthe first episode of the series is further configured to: determine aframe of the second episode of the series that corresponds to theportion of the second episode of the series; and cross-reference theframe with a database listing a plurality of frames in the first episodeof the series to determine whether the frame matches one of theplurality of frames.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the portion ofthe second episode of the series is preceded by a second portion of thesecond episode of the series during playback of the second episode ofthe series.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein the control circuitryconfigured to compare the second episode of the series to the firstepisode of the series to determine whether the portion of the secondepisode of the series matches the portion of the first episode of theseries is further configured to: retrieve metadata corresponding to theportion of the second episode of the series; and cross-reference themetadata of the portion of the second episode of the series with adatabase listing metadata of the first episode of the series todetermine whether the portion of the second episode of the seriesmatches the portion of the first episode of the series.
 13. The systemof claim 8, wherein the control circuitry configured to compare thesecond episode of the series to the first episode of the series todetermine whether the portion of the second episode of the seriesmatches the portion of the first episode of the series is furtherconfigured to: retrieve an event corresponding to the portion of thesecond episode of the series; and cross-reference the event of theportion of the second episode of the series with a database listing aplurality of events corresponding to the first episode of the series todetermine whether the portion of the second episode of the seriesmatches the portion of the first episode of the series.
 14. The systemof claim 8, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:monitor user behavior of a population of users who consume the secondepisode of the series after consuming the first episode of the series;in response to the monitoring, detect fast-forward behaviorcorresponding to the portion of the second episode of the series by athreshold number of users of the population; and in response todetecting the fast-forward behavior, identify the portion of the secondepisode of the series for the comparing.